Cafe Rio Sweet Pulled Pork Salads

No, your eyes are not deceiving you. That is a picture of a power saw being used on a chunk of meat. Our pork was frozen solid and didn't fit in our crockpot, so Jeremy had the very resourceful idea of using our power saw to slice it in two haha! I was more than a little nervous that he was going to slice through my crock pot, but I needed the pork to fit so I figured, why not? Who needs an electric knife when you've got a power saw??:)

These are so yummy! They do actually taste a lot like Cafe Rio's pulled pork salads, though they're not an exact match. Close enough, though. Ava love the pork. The original recipe called for 5 jalapeno cross sections and I thought the dressing was too spicy so I would only do 2... or none at all. :)

Cafe Rio Sweet Pulled Pork Salads

Sweet Pulled Pork

3 lbs pork tenderloin
1 ½ cups brown sugar
1 cup Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp ginger
1 tsp salt
1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp garlic powder
½ tsp onion powder
1 (10 oz) can red enchilada sauce

Combine all ingredients in crock pot, except for the brown sugar and enchilada sauce, and cook on low for 7 hours. Strain fat from crock pot and shred the meat. Add brown sugar and enchilada sauce and cook on low for 1 more hour.

Creamy Tomatillo Dressing

3 fresh tomatillos, peeled and cut into quarters
juice of ½ a lime
½ cup buttermilk
½ cup mayonnaise
½ cup sour cream
2 ounces cream cheese
1 pkg dry Ranch Buttermilk Dressing mix
½ cup fresh cilantro
5-6 green onions, diced
2 cloves garlic
4 tsp sugar
2 cross section slices of a jalapeno pepper

Combine cilantro, buttermilk, green onions, garlic and tomatillos in a blender and blend until smooth. Add remaining ingredients and blend until well mixed.


For Salads:

Layer a tortilla (the cook-at-home kind work best), hot white rice, hot black beans, shredded romaine lettuce, sweet pulled pork, corn chip strips, pico de gallo (or just chopped fresh tomato) and top with Creamy Tomatillo Dressing.